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Summary: Flash memory is not the same as the type of memory used as your system RAM. They have different characteristics and they're accessed differently. No. That was simple. But to avoid this becoming the shortest Ask Leo! article ever, let me explain why. • As you can probably guess by now, all memory is not created equal. Your system memory typically resides on your computer's motherboard, and uses a very high speed interface to connect to your computer's CPU. In fact, as fast as that interface is, it's still not as fast as we would like it (so true about so many things), and most modern CPUs actually copy or "cache" blocks of memory internally where they can access it even faster. One of the characteristics of system memory is that when you remove power, *poof*, the memory has lost what ever it contained. Time to reboot. USB Memory Sticks, on the other hand, are expected to retain whatever you put in them when the power is removed. Heck, they're expected to retain their memory when they're completely removed from the computer. As a result they use a different memory technology typically called "flash ram", which does exactly that. It's called "flash" because the memory contents are loaded, and then a special signal is sent that, in a sense, tells the memory to "remember this, now". It's kind of like taking a picture with a flash on your camera ... the picture "remembers" the state of everything when the flash went off. Flash BIOS is called that for the same reason - it's just flash memory that contains your computer's BIOS. The downside to flash RAM is that it's slower. Reading flash memory is slower, and writing to flash memory is MUCH slower. It works fine as a virtual disk drive because our expectations for a disk's speed are quite different than what we expect for system memory. In addition to the issue of the memory's own speed, there's also the USB interface to consider. As fast as it is for other purposes, it, too, is significantly slower than your system's main memory. So USB RAM sticks, memory sticks, key chain drives, geek sticks, whatever you call them, are great for portable data storage. But increasing your system's memory is an entirely different proposition. Related:
Article 5144 | Posted April 9, 2005 |
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There is a way to get some RAM-ish functionality out of a flash drive, using Vista's ReadyBoost or the software from http://www.eboostr.com/ which allows XP users to do the same thing. Not RAM per-se, but it does allow stuff to load a WHOLE lot faster on my old machine (only half a gig of ram)
Posted by: JBu92 at March 24, 2008 4:49 PMI just loaded eboostr to my Toshiba Laptop and I see a tremendous difference. I was getting ready to give up on this thing. All programs were ultra slow, (Mozilla takes 5min to load). Now I can load most programs in seconds. Like having more RAM instantly. Thank you for the advice. This is a very great program as far as I can see.
Posted by: Jake at April 3, 2008 11:01 PMThere is a third party program for XP called eBooster: http://www.eboostr.com/
Posted by: David at April 12, 2008 1:48 PMwhich promises great things by using a flash drive in a similar capacity to ReadyBoost (or so I`m lead to believe). I gave it a try with a 1 gig Memorex "Travel-Drive" stick and it didn`t actually make a terrific difference on my machine, although I thought that boot-up was a tad faster. Even now, I`m not absolutely sure what it does or how it works, if someone could enlighten me further. There`s lots of activity from the LED on the drive and I can view a whole load of cache data stored on it (which doesn`t mean a lot to me) but it was my understanding that these drives wear out and couldn`t be used in this way.
I canoot format my usb flash,nor send anything to it, although I can see it in the task-bar.
Posted by: moen at April 23, 2008 2:29 AMHow come my RAM amount didn't increase on the System thing?
-Leo
Posted by: Jon at August 5, 2008 4:50 AM
Thanks Leo. You ARE helpful. But, can you tell me if eBoostr WILL help my computer with 4GB memory?
Posted by: Jon at August 6, 2008 12:55 AMLeo, I have 2, 4mb sicks of SSM partitoned off as virtual memory. I am running Crysis, and a number other top end games, with one a 512 stick of ddr2....
Posted by: Jay Rosenthal at September 16, 2008 4:03 PMFrankly, the concept of placing vital bit information on to a detachable stick is not very bright. Imagine the damage you could do by simply pulling on the wrong stick. Hard disk transfer speeds are greater than that of USB so HDD virtual memory is probably the more superior option, especially if you have set your page file to be on a different drive to that of your OS. Also, I suspect that USB’s non-volatile memory will give you less read/write cycles before destruction that volatile RAM (loses data on switch-off), supporting my earlier comment.
Posted by: Meat at September 26, 2008 2:21 AMA USB root can support 127 devices. All the information for these devices is split and forced down the same line (serially). Ok, you may just have a mouse or keyboard but even this means that your USB ‘RAM’ may not have priority and the time is certainly split between the devices. Say you are running a program and the data for it is divided between your onboard RAM and USB stick. The data it is looking for is on the stick and so, despite the fast speed of your RAM, your program will hang and wait for the data it requires from the stick. Everything will be running at stick speed. This can cause time-outs and freezes as the CPU will be demanding info that is not available due to the waiting times and priority of the USB root.
Using USB sticks for RAM also requires an alteration of your USB drivers. Consequently this can result in a massive heating effect which can cause the destruction of the stick and then, your OS installation/computer.
I advise to stay away from this “quick fix” until it has been researched and developed further. Opt for purpose built RAM, giving you speed and reliability.
From Micosoft:
Posted by: Ken Gettys at November 9, 2008 2:31 PM"Windows ReadyBoost improves system memory and boosts performance. The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost relies on the intelligent memory management of Windows SuperFetch and can significantly improve system responsiveness."
After installing the 1GB USB flash stick (it is not ram) and setting up my Vista computer to use 350 mb of it as Memory Cache (again, not ram), I went to the Task Manager (via Ctl/Alt/Del) then to the "Performance" tab then to the "Resource Monitor" Button, then to the "Disk" Frame where I found that the "f:\ReadyBoost" drive\program had used 3,100,000 Read B/Min and 7,400,000 Write B/Min. This while I was only downloading Vista SP1 (large update) and IE 8 Beta for Vista (smaller update). Hard to tell if the 27 ms access time makes any over all difference as there were lots of small sized Page File disk references too. Closer monitoring (which I don't have time for right now) of this information may prove that using the Vista included Readyboost program and a flash drive might make a difference in providing faster accessable disk cache than hard disk page file access. While at breakfast at McDonalds I saw in a Target ad this morning for a 16gb flash stick for $49.xx which got me to think and then Google "USB Ram" to find another always friendly and often very helpful "Ask-Leo"'s blog!
Posted by: Ken Gettys at November 9, 2008 3:24 PM